


Separated Together

by ABonnyBunny



Category: The Simpsons
Genre: Being Lost, Carnival, Comedy, Flashback fic, Fluff, Gen, I like being mean to Kirk, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23755111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABonnyBunny/pseuds/ABonnyBunny
Summary: A lil' flashback oneshot!
Relationships: Sherri Mackleberry & Terri Mackleberry
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Separated Together

“C’mon, keep up!” a man called behind him, with the kind of tone one would expect from someone who had been begged for hours to be there.

Behind him trailed a pair of six-year olds, following as best as their little legs could manage. They couldn’t have been more identical, with the same overall dresses, the same piggy noses and purple hair. The only visible difference between them was the big, square specs worn by one of the twins, which framed her innocent yet slightly spooky eyes.

A town carnival was usually one of those places adults and kids alike could enjoy, unless you were a grumpy hardass that hated people. On that note, the twins’ dad wasn’t enjoying himself one bit. 

This carnival was a little stranger than most, it was hard to tell what most of the decorations were supposed to be. Maniacal eyeless clowns? A… traffic cone with a face? Some kind of skeletal shrimp thing? It was a little unsettling. The bespectacled younger twin, Terri, noticed a loud, spiky haired boy trying to wrestle free from his balding dad.

It was hard to focus only on the decorations when the whole carnival was awash with flashing colours and exciting noises from all sorts of games! Not that Terri or Sherri were allowed to play any of them - their dad wasn’t about to spend his money on “idiot traps” - but it was still fun to watch others try to play.

Their attention was turned to a different balding dad, one with blue hair, glasses and his son and… his sister? They all looked alike, eerily even more so than the twins themselves. The man spent a good half a minute lining up his shot and with a flick of the wrist the ring he held… flopped pathetically at his feet.

“Ehh, ya missed, pal!” The carny chirped as if he’d said the exact same thing fifteen times already.

It was fun to watch because the other carnival goers really sucked at these games.

Both twins got caught up in watching the fascinating display of human failure. It was rhythmic, hypnotic even, watching him slap another dollar on the counter and maybe throw the ring halfway to the pole on his best attempts. Unable to cut his losses, he was still going long after his relatives left. The twins doubled over when he somehow managed to toss the ring over himself.

“Heyyy, why don’t you beat it, ya little punks!” he yelled at the two small children, “you’re throwing me off here, so scram!” He might have made a shooing gesture were his hands not trapped at his side by the ring.

“Sorry, mister,” Sherri muttered, signalling to Terri that it was their cue to leave and continue their railroaded tour with their dad. 

There was a slight problem - he never waited.

Neither knew if he had left on purpose or not but he was gone. Around them were nothing but intimidating cutouts and pushy jerks. 

Suddenly, everything felt so much bigger, bearing down on the twins with soulless stares.

“Daddy?  _ Daddy! _ ” Terri cried. She turned and grabbed Sherri by the shoulders. “Where? Where did he go?”   
  
“I don’t know! I can’t see him anywhere!” Sherri squeaked back, tone rising as she frantically searched around for their dad but only finding more and more things that would replace the starfish-monster in her nightmares. They were adrift in a sea of adults who all frankly smelled terrible. 

Instinctively, Sherri grabbed her sister’s arm and ran for cover behind an out-of-the-way “Krusty-floss” machine. The space behind it was dark, vacant and smelled even worse than outside, like a pack of dogs that had been rolling in sewage - probably owing to the dog hair the floss appeared to be made of.

Still, with nobody visiting, it was still less stressful than out there. Even the sight of the blue-haired man’s ring rebounding off the stall pillars and knocking him out wasn’t enough to alleviate the situation.

“What are we gonna do, Sherri? We’re lost!”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” Sherri bleated, clutching her head, “I just don’t know!”

“Oh no,” Terri said, eyes wide behind her glasses as every worried thought rushed into her little mind, “we’re gonna get kidnapped and they’ll sell us as slaves and we can’t work yet! Or- or we’ll be homeless and starve or monsters will eat us or--”

After that, even Sherri couldn’t follow what Terri was saying. With her face buried in her sleeves and her words drowned in sobs, everything her sister was having a meltdown over sounded like random gibberish and not the normal nonsensical gobbledegook that she could translate.

They were born only seconds apart, womb-mates through and through, but Sherri was still the older sister. With that title came certain responsibilities. Not that she wasn’t thinking half of the same things. There were a lot of scary stories Dad had put into their heads, it was like he had one for every occasion he didn’t approve of. Yet the protective side of Sherri couldn’t sit by while Terri became a blubbering wreck seconds away from curling up into a fetal position.

“Terri…” She tried to get her attention to no avail. Even poking failed to change anything, and so there was only one reasonable option left. Sherri threw her arms around her sister and pulled her into a hug.

“Shh, shh, shh… It’s okay, Terri… I’m still here...”

It was as if the rest of the world didn’t exist at that moment. The hug was as much for herself as it was for Terri and everything cooled down as they gently swayed. When Terri’s hands slipped behind Sherri’s back, it was as if nothing was wrong.

“C’mon, we can find Daddy ourselves!”

“A-are you sure?” Terri said with a sniffle.

“Of course! As long as you’re here, it’ll be easy!” Sherri hadn’t quite meant what she said, at least until she saw Terri smile. Not that Terri had wiped her tears (or her nose) but it still gave Sherri that little boost she needed. “And if any monsters bother us, I’ll kick their teeth out! Now, follow me!”

Sherri gently grabbed her sister’s hand and gave it a squeeze before leading her back into the crowd, never loosening her grip. As she looked around, her first thought was to find a responsible-looking adult. Her standards were quickly lowered to adults that didn’t look like they had killed before.

“Hello? Mister?” Sherri said to someone who looked too pathetic to be a threat. He turned and quickly his beady eyes went as wide as they could, it was the same man from the ring-toss, sporting some fresh new lumps.

“You again? I was in the zone ‘til you punks ruined it! Get lost!”

If anyone else had fake-lunged at them, the twins likely would have likely run away screaming, instead they just walked. If he was as strong as his ring toss performance demonstrated, he would have probably been outmatched had he tried to fight a pair of toddlers.

“Okay so that first one was a dud, no surprise there... But there’s lots of grownups around, they can’t all be like that!”

Terri had nothing to say in response, it wasn’t like she even needed to.

“What about this one over here? He seems funny!” Sherri motioned towards a sullen looking man fast approaching the middle ages sitting on some sort of platform above a tank of water. His expression was at odds with his features, being almost birdlike with big bulgy eyes and a tangled bush of green hair centered around a large bone.

“Hey, we’re lost, have you seen our Daddy? He… Doesn’t look anything like us but he’s blond and looks grumpy all the time?”

The man gazed ahead, rubbing his chin and squinting in thought like he was in a stage play. He sighed a minute later, hanging his head in shame.

“Alas, lamentably, I have not seen such a man!” the strange birdman hollered. He paused as if he was performing a mental backspace—if only to come to the same conclusion again. “Attention, attendees! Has anyone seen the father of these--”

“Shaddup would ya!” a curly-haired, hunch-backed, gargoyle-faced man yelled back.

“Hey, you’re not paid to talk, Melvin!” one of the nearby barkers chimed in, “you wanna lose your job?”

Defeated, the oddly eloquent man slumped, “I’m barely paid at all,'' he murmured.

Sherri and Terri glanced at each other, not wanting to touch that topic with a barge pole. “Thanks for trying, I guess…” Sherri said with a sigh. She was starting to think she was wasting her time. As she and Terri turned to leave, Melvin called out, holding up a line of tickets.

“One of the other patrons left these behind, it may not be much but you may as well take them,” He bowed deeply as if he expected to be watched by a talent agent while he presented his gift. “Best of fortunes finding your father! And one final word of advice: if you cannot find him, do not take a job here. Why, I’d be more dignified as a clown’s sideki--yaaaaah!”

The man was abruptly dropped into the tank, almost splashing the sisters with water that smelled less than sanitary. From afar, a slightly older boy pointed and jeered with a squeaky “Ha-ha!”

“He’s funny!” Terri giggled, watching Melvin struggle to get out of the water. It was made all the harder by the wide dunking platform resetting even without his hairdo getting in the way. As soon as it stopped being funny and the girls considered calling for help, it appeared the other boy got bored also.

Sherri suddenly grabbed Terri by the arm and yanked her to the side. Had she not been keeping an eye on the boy, her sister would have taken a softball to her back instead of it cracking the tank’s glass—draining the water—and unintentionally saving Melvin.

“Hey! What was that for?” Sherri cried.

“I ‘unno, felt like hucking crud at ya,” the boy answered. In a clear violation of the game’s rules, he grabbed as many balls as he could carry. Fortunately for the twins he forgot to leave one of his hands free, leaving them with ample time to escape.

“Oh, the nerve of that… that buttfaced warthog!” Sherri griped once they were well out of his earshot.

“And we’re no closer to finding daddy,” Terri mumbled, staring at the ill-kept grass, or perhaps she was mourning the packet of chippos someone carelessly stomped on—never opened, never enjoyed.

It was hard for Sherri to deny, it increasingly seemed like a lost cause. It was far too crowded and they were far too small. Damned if she’d let down her favourite sister, though, she quickly pulled up a plan B. She still held onto the tickets they had received.

“Let’s find the ring toss again!” Sherri said with a grin.

“Huh? Ring toss? I don’t think he’s going to be there.”

“Noooo but we can play now!” Sherri flashed her tickets, “Let’s go have some fun!”

Terri hesitated but not for long. When Sherri held her hand again, she once again felt that burst of confidence. Keeping their hands linked as before, the two of them scampered back to the stall where their troubles began—giggling all the way this time.

“Hey, we wanna play!” the older twin called out as she and Terri nearly crashed into the stage. It wasn’t too big for them both to climb. As for the ring toss, it was much bigger than average. A single large pole was planted in the center of the stage surrounded by a barrier slightly taller than the young girls.

It took a moment for the barker to respond, he looked at the twins cock-eyed and then shrugged. “Sure, whatever.” With a ticket exchanged, he dropped a ring in front of Sherri that landed with a thud. “Be careful, the ring’s heavy!”

Sherri hefted the ring up. Her tiny hands were already starting to strain but it did little to deter her. Behind the garish multicolored barrier hung rows and rows of plushies. Sherri wasn’t looking but she knew Terri was eyeing the big blue bear in the middle of them—adorned with a tiny bowler hat and everything.

The first-born twin took a deep breath that puffed out her cheeks.  _ C’mon, you can do this, it’s for Terri! _

With a stereotypical karate-yell, she closed her eyes, twisted, and tossed the ring with her whole body. There was a ‘clunk’ and a few gasps, but they were not the kind she was hoping for. To her right lay the ring toss’s favourite victim, the blue-haired man. He was once again knocked out cold as everyone stared.

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Sherri cried, covering her mouth. It looked like a serious hit too. Not that there was any blood but the ring had landed a foot or two away.

“Yeesh, now that’s the worst miss tonight, missy!” the barker crowed from behind. There was a suffocating tension as Sherri felt all eyes on her now. Perhaps it was the assumed complicity but Terri edged closer and started to hold Sherri, who returned the gesture. Suddenly, something hit Terri on the head.

It was a small plush, a long-haired pink rabbit.

“Ehh, that guy got on my nerves, so just take that and scram.”

Something about the rabbit gave Sherri the shivers. Something about its eyes didn’t feel right, that and the more human-like teeth… not to mention it wasn’t the prize Terri must have wanted.

And yet Terri cuddled it all the same.

“Thanks, mister!” Terri said, still hugging her creepy new friend tightly.

“Yeah, yeah, now get outta here before you do any more damage!”

Once they’d double checked the unfortunate man was okay, it was time to move on. There were a few other attractions that they could have taken part in even at their small size. Yet for fear of injuring somebody else, Sherri and Terri opted for something a little less active.

“Hey there, missies!” a man in a gaudy wizard hat called out. The hat was adorned with stars as were his robes. “Match wits if you dare, with the Mathemagician!”

The twins glanced at each other, and then back at him—which he seemed to take as acceptance.

“Okay, here’s how it works; I’ll calculate exactly how much you weigh, with the power of math! Then I weigh you, and then I win! Now you, step forward!” he gestured towards Sherri. 

The man’s behaviour was slightly off-putting so she was hesitant to step forward. The Mathemagician circled, poked, prodded and measured her. His gaudy star-speckled cape flashed around Sherri eyes with each movement and it was starting to make her tense up.

“Forty-two pounds, exactly! Quite the little porker, huh? Now, your tickets!”

One exchange later and the man gestured towards some scales with a showy wave of his hand.

“Well, come on, then!” he pointed at Terri, “up you go, time waits for nobody, not even the Mathemagical!”

One confused glance between sisters later, the younger of the two plodded forth and stepped onto the scale. She looked back at Sherri, unsure of the situation, and got a thumbs-up in return albeit with an unsteady grin.

“Wuh… what? No, this can’t be right…” she heard the mathemagical man murmur. Finally working up the nerve to see the results, a quick look at the scales told all.

_ Forty-four pounds, two ounces! _

Until that day, Terri couldn’t say she had seen someone come undone. She watched the Mathemagician squirm and tremble, all of his bravado fell apart like a house of cards on a spinning plate in the middle of an earthquake. In seconds he was nought but a regular man in a stupid outfit.

“I can’t have gotten it wrong, I checked everything twice! I uh… this is impossible! I’m gonna get fired, I know it…”

“Well gee, sorry mister,” Terri muttered, offering the mere pittance of a sympathetic back pat.

“But you lost. So, y’know, make with the prizes,” Sherri said. She didn’t bother to wait for a reply or any sort of excuse or accusation he could pull out of the mathemagic dimension or whatever. With their tickets back and then some, they left the man to his existential crisis.

“Do you think we should have told him he weighed the wrong twin?”

“Eh, if he didn’t notice your glasses he was probably gonna get it wrong anyway,” Sherri answered as she thumbed through their bounty, “besides, serves him right for calling me a porker!”

With a hefty amount of tickets, Sherri and Terri did the one thing any child would do when they obtained a fortune… immediately blow it on anything and everything they came across. Some successes, some failures. Perhaps one or two stalls got knocked down but it was hardly their fault, they weren’t terribly well built.

With the last of their tickets used up, the tiny twins seated themselves under a colourful yet empty tent. The skies greyed and the air grew cold. With ice cream in hand, they observed everyone else panicking to get away from the weather while they listened to the soothing pitter patter of rain on the tent… or they would have if it wasn’t drowned out by the spiky-haired menace from earlier going nuts with a super soaker. Even with his dad in pursuit nobody was going to apprehend the boy anytime soon.

“He still hasn’t come for us,” Terri said with a hint of envy.

“Well, he’s gotta find us sometime.”

“Or maybe he didn’t want us anymore, and--”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t do  _ that _ , Terri. Maybe the police will come and find us!”

Without a word, Terri rapidly polished off the last of her ice cream and scarfed down the cone. Sherri’s previous statement fell flat as Terri saw the few cops the town had tripping over themselves in an embarrassing bid to end that strangely cute troublemaker’s rampage.

“Or maybe we can walk home instead. You know, just the two of us, together?” Sherri pulled her two-seconds-younger sister close. “We’re doing okay so far, right?”

It must have been at least an hour since the two of them had gotten lost. Throughout their tour of the carnival, she hadn’t even thought of their dad until now. Even without his supervision, she and Sherri had had a blast. Actually, it was more like it was because of a lack of supervision. Even now, her anxiety wasn’t coming back. She knew Sherri had her back, and vice versa. Even being abandoned didn’t seem so bad anymore.

“Yeah, let’s try that later, who knows, maybe it will be fun!” Terri chirped as they watched that boy finally get reined in by his mom. Neither of them envied him, needing a parent to calm him down. It felt like they were already beyond that, as long as they had each other.


End file.
